


And They Were Nowhere

by Miscreant (BulletBlaze)



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: "All That Josh" ending rewrite, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon up through s3e9, Eventual Relationships, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 07:46:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14256276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BulletBlaze/pseuds/Miscreant
Summary: When the Muntjac plummets over the edge of Fillory, she takes Margo and Eliot to Castle Blackspire before they are ready. With the help of Ora, the Unity Key, and another fucking sacrifice, they have to figure out a way to complete the quest in a much shorter timeline than they had originally planned.





	And They Were Nowhere

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work in this fandom, but I just couldn't get this idea out of my head. I'm not sure how often updates are going to be, what with school and work and everything, but I'll try my best to be somewhat timely.  
> I don't have a lot of this planned out as of right now, so bear with me!  
> Barely edited, so any mistakes are my own.  
> The title is from "I, The Sun" by Lights On

“Okay, fine. You win. We’ll just die, I guess.”

Eliot turned his head at the sharp, disappointed words. Margo rose from the ground and brushed the imaginary dust from her dress, a frown twisting her face.

“I thought you’d never give up,” he quipped with a forced smile as she stalked nearer and leaned against the wall next to him, gazing out the window.

“Yeah, well, my ass was getting numb, and I don’t think she’s even listening anyway.”

Both turned to look at the heart of the Muntjac, silently willing the boat to just turn around. To save them. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. Margo sighed and looked back to the window.

Eliot hated the defeated slump to her normally determined posture, and he hated that there was nothing he could do about it. The Muntjac wouldn’t listen, magic was gone, and Tick had betrayed them before leaving on a boat with the servants. There was no way off this ship and Eliot and Margo were well and truly fucked.

The chains that bound Eliot to the ship rattled as they scraped along a rock, setting the whole ship shaking violently for a moment. Margo gasped and braced herself against the windowsill until it stopped. When she looked back up and met Eliot’s eye, he could see the fear had broken through her walls and was beginning to take over, pushing past the stony anger she had forced to the front.

For a moment, they just stared and breathed, trying to keep their hearts under control. Finally, Eliot reached a hand out to her and whispered, “Come here, Bambi.”

Margo didn’t hesitate. She grasped his hand and stepped into his embrace, resting her head against his chest and letting out a ragged exhale.

“You know, I had started to think we’d never die,” she whispered against his shirt. “With everything we’ve been through… We somehow made it out alive. Every damn time.”

Eliot nodded; he did know. He was surprised, too. Even when he had purposefully thrown himself into situations, hoping they would be the end, he had still survived. And then he’d finally found something worth living for- people worth living for- and now they were the ones killing him.

Wasn’t the universe ironic?

The two stood together, swaying along with the Muntjac until another hit came. Their arms tightened and their eyes squeezed shut. That hit was followed by another, and another, and another. Eliot peeled his eyes open and he found the window- stared as he watched the water disappear over the edge of the cliff as they grew closer and closer and closer, until-

Margo screamed, and Eliot thought he did, too, but he was too busy trying to hold onto her body to notice.

They fell for what felt like hours, and while the screaming had stopped, the fear was growing stronger as Eliot realized that they would be falling until they died, and that that could take days. Margo has been ripped from his arms and part of him felt as though he'd died already.

He hadn’t wished for death since he became king, but now he found himself praying to gods that didn’t care that it would come soon.

Then, something happened. The Muntjac shifted, and Eliot thought, ‘This is it. We’re going to crash into a rock and be smashed to dust. This is the end.’

Somewhere, over the rushing in his ears, he heard Margo shout his name.

“Margo!” he called back, desperate for her to hear him.

She didn’t have time to reply, however, because the ship was tilting again; except, this time, Eliot found himself back on his feet. Furniture crashed to the floor all around him, and Eliot fell to his knees likewise. The ship steadied herself slowly, and then all that was left was the subtle sway as she flew through the air. Pushing past his shock, Eliot searched for Margo around the room, finally spotting her standing on unsteady legs by the window once again. There was a red light illuminating her face. As she turned to him slowly it reflected out of her one eye, and Eliot felt an overwhelming need to hug her. He had thought he'd never get to see that beautiful eye ever again.

“El…” she whispered, breathless, and turned back to whatever was outside. “El, come look at this.”

On shaky legs, he managed to climb back onto his feet and make his way to her side. When he was standing behind her, his eyes widened at the view just outside the window.

Everything was red. Dark and stormy and strangely beautiful, in a terrifying yet exhilarating ‘holy-shit-we’re-alive’ kind of way.

“Where the hell are we?” he breathed, fingers reaching over her shoulder to brush against the glass.

Margo didn't say anything as they sailed past fire and rock and rivers of red, but she did lean back into Eliot’s chest, reaching behind to stretch his arm across her body.

Eliot didn't know whether to be relieved that they were somehow still alive or more scared than ever. 

It was a few seconds later when the Muntjac seemed to change from flying in some vague direction to taking on a specific course, swerving between mountains that hung upside down and turning along with the route of a glowing river that thrummed above them. With no warning, the ship was suddenly flipping upside down. Margo and Eliot gasped and crouched to the floor for stability, but found that they didn't need it. Nothing had moved inside the ship, and Eliot realized that they were adjusting to the gravity.

“Bambi… are we under-?”

“Fillory,” she finished. “Look. El, look!”

He followed her gaze and his eyes widened as he took in what looked just like-

“It's Blackspire.” Margo whipped her head around to look at Eliot. “She's taking us to Castle Blackspire.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is more of an intro than anything, but I appreciate any feedback- it makes my day :)  
> I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
